Aqua Midnight
Overview Name: Aqueara Kaya Nicknames: Aqua (Aqua Midnight) Race: Midnight (demon)/hybrid of winged anthro-cat and demon Gender: Male Age: 23 Affiliation: Midnight Clan (kind of the Elemental Sages too but they split up a while ago for personal goals) Class, Rank, or Place: Member of Midnight Clan, Elemental Sage of Water Level of Authority on a 0-100% scale: in Midnight Clan, 10%, with elemental users, 95% Abilities: Dark essence, neutral essence (usually in the form of water abilities), flight Specified Abilities: Is a neutral essence user which allows him to manipulate water (exactly like waterbending) and with this ability comes the ability to create a bubble of air around his head to breathe underwater Weapon of choice: none, uses abilities only in combat, which entails using water or sometimes dark essence Personality: Humble, trusting, intelligent but denies it/doesn't try to seem like it, cares for who he's close to. Goals: To gain intellect of the essences and its origins and uses, and with the knowledge to spread a domain united by essence users (he realises how farfetched this is) Relationships: Generally friendly, obedient to Midnight and other high ranks in Midnight Clan, respectful to other Midnights and other mythical creatures unless there's reason not to. Orientation: Asexual (yas) Strong points: Can usually withstand an opponent verbally, and in his field of abilities quite advanced (except for direct use of neutral essence), most of the time compassionate and caring, and a great listener. Weak points: Comes across as timid sometimes, often won't be seen a lot, quite carefree so gets into situations he doesn't like, prefers the verbal approach to the physical, if his surroundings don't allow for water-based attacks he'll get panicked with having to use only dark essence. Initial Height: 5'10" Demonic Height: 6'10" *Sage Form Height: 5'10" Eye Color: Royal blue with a slit down the middle of the eye for a pupil Eye Type: Cat-like Hair: has no hair...? Ears: Cat-like, pointy Nose: Cat-like, small Mouth: Cat-like, curved into a sort of natural smiling shape Skin Tone: Under his fur, his skin is the same colour, navy blue. Body Type: Athletic, but leaning more to muscular than slim Tail Length: Long, about 4 feet long Fur Color: Navy blue, covering his body Wing Color: Navy blue Wing Type: Feathered, but sleek and rarely ruffled Wingspan: Each wing is 5 feet long (doubles when in Sage Form) Facial Hair: none, besides fur Facial Markings: none Tattoos/Body Markings: None Hands & Feet Type: Both human-like, but covered in fur, with half-inch-long claws on toes and inch-long claws on fingers (both retractable) Hand Length: ?? Foot Length: ?? Scars or Inflicted Marks: none Clothing: Often wears royal blue corduroy trousers with a sky blue shirt (sometimes with a royal blue waistcoat too) for casual clothing, formally wearing a long black robe, with a navy blue bodysuit underneath with the Elemental Sage Emblem at the centre of the chest. (The Emblem is just a horizontal chain formation of 4 circles touching each other at edge, coloured green, yellow, orange and red, seen right to left when worn. A small crystal of the same colour is positioned at the centre of the respective coloured circle.) History Summary: Aqua was born from a former Elementalist called Samela and a dark essence user called Feera, his father and mother respectively. The three lived as nomads and travelled the land before encountering a place where essence could be felt in high levels all over the place. One day, due to the belief that Aqua couldn't use either neutral or dark essence like his parents, Feera was angered and killed Samela, abandoning Aqua and fleeing to find away to find and reside in the Dark Realm (which she somehow did idk). He didn't have to travel very far or long to find a settlement of neutral essence users, who had elemental abilities stemming from their neutral essence abilities. He resided with them for years after having to initially explain how Samela had died. These elemental users called themselves the Elementalists and welcomed him warmly. As a 16-year-old neutral essence user, Aqua discovered his ability to use neutral essence to manipulate an element, his element being water. He kept living in the settlement with the other Elementalists outside the Forest of Illusion, who were settled there since in the Forest would be dangerous considering the concentration of light and dark essence that was there too, but was a source of neutral essence too for them to use. Having got to grips with using water by the age 18, the settlement had lost members due to an ill-prepared expedition where Elementalists had gone into the forest and never returned. With only him and a few Elementalists for acquaintances, they started travelling southwest for a week, not managing very far before being stopped by powerful neutral essence users and powerful Elementalists: the Elemental Sages. There was the Sage of Air, Earth and Fire but one missing Sage, the Sage of Water, who they believed was Aqua. Urging him to leave them and go to learn the advanced arts of Elemental Sages, his friends left and continued travelling southwest. The Sages took him to the northern Frezelia mountains, where he would complete his Sage training. After 4 long, painful yet unforgettable years, he became the fully realised Elemental Sage of Water (and learned how to use his *Sage Form). However it was not until a year later that the four Sages realised how different their life goals were and how incapable they were of the synergy the Sages should have. Nonetheless, the decided to split their ways as individuals to pursue their interests. Aqua had had a large interest in the dark essence and the Dark Arts, and remembering how his mother ran away, and how there was a forest particularly rich in dark essence, he flew south again to approach the outskirts of the Forest of Illusion. He walked into the forest, a felt a strange feeling overcome him; he felt like there was essence flooding him... Then he looked at his hands. Dark essence was fixing itself in small wisps to his fingertips, and he learnt he could use dark essence. Still new to this, he still knew he shouldn't mix his neutral and dark essence abilities up, if he used his dark essence too powerfully he would lose his Elementalist abilities. He is torn as of yet to which essence to use - if he uses only neutral, there wouldn't be much to use in the surroundings considering the concentration of dark/light essence in the forest, but to use only dark would mean he would lose his neutral essence abilities - and has thought that, until he finds other essence users in the Forest. He soon comes across Midnight Clan's Castle. Demonic Form Description: Grows to nearly 7 feet tall, fur darkens to black, ears become larger and more curved to resemble horns, pupils dilate into circles rather than slits, claws fully eject and fangs grow slightly. Obvious increase in dark essence abilities, though no accessibility to neutral essence and thus his elemental abilities. He'll never really use this for though, and would rather use his *Sage Form. Sage Form description (finally): His Sage Form is something he's completely mastered and is completely unique to the Elemental Sages. To transform, he forms two rapidly spinning rings of neutral essence-infused water around his torso intersecting once behind him and once in front of him, then takes 5-ish seconds to form twice as large wings, a rich royal blue coat of fur and a faint glow in his eyes. However, in this form, his use of dark essence is inaccessible and he still doesn't wish to use raw neutral essence, though in this form his water abilities are heightened and he can gather clouds in the sky and condense water straight from vapour in the air onto his hands, plus the ability to use ice. This form can only be kept up, however, if he is in the surroundings of some, even a little, neutral essence. If not, he'll be force-reverted back and his water abilities won't be accessible for another few minutes. Detailed history Aqueara was born beside the river flowing from the majestic Mount Argen, crying as a newborn would. Feera was crying too, not out of the pain of childbirth, but at the miracle of childbirth. She felt the tender touch of her husband's arms around her waist from behind her, holding her child close to her left shoulder. She lay back in Samela's embrace, falling into a contented sleep. After a week of residing by the famous Holy River while the new mother recovered, they began to travel again. They travelled for a long decade, but the length of time allowed change. A cool spring evening fell upon the eastern beach. The three sat by the shoreline, Samela and Aqueara gazed into the darkening horizon with sleepy eyes, though Feera sat with back straight, legs crossed, arms folded and face with stress written all over it. As a salty breezed gusted over them, she lay a hand over her son's head with a sigh. "Samela?" she whispered, "a quick word?" His ears perked at his name's mention, turning his head to her with a smile. "Of course. We'll be right back, Aqueara, stay here." he said, standing and spreading his wings as he walked with Feera over to the back of the beach where the forest began. "What's the matter, dearie?" Samela asked, stifling a yawn. "Don't you 'dearie' me, Sam." she replied scornfully, as his expression grew from sleepy to exhausted. "You know what I want to talk about. Our child has grown. He knows how to explore wild places in safety, heck, he can even fly now! You taught him flight but you still haven't tried to teach him essence? Anyone his age would know how to by now! And don't you dare say he can't use it, we both can use it. If he's going to develop as a being, he's going to have to learn essence before adol''escence. What do you have to say for yourself?" Samela scratched the back of his head, avoiding eye contact and holding a hand on his hip. Feera crossed her arms, feeling rather enraged. "Samela, you can't hold it off for much longer." she said, almost speaking desperately. "Listen, Feera," he began, "I've tried to convince him to do some simple moves like I've been doing to entertain him. He's interested in it, that's for sure, but he just can't get to grips with it. I'm positive if he could use it he'd be discovering it himself by now." He let out a strained yawn as his arms fell by his side. She grunted loudly in response. "Nonsense." Though as seconds passed, her face grew more sullen and blank. ''He could be right. No. Aqueara HAD to know essence. Had to... Her eyes grew angrier, flashing a faintly visible momentary red, as she looked dead on into Samela's eyes. "You're not really going to go on saying he can't be taught essence, are you?" She put on a patronizing tone, clasping her hands behind her back. "Whatever... even if he can't use it, you've not given me what a wanted from the start: a little hero. My own offspring going off into the world to achieve the things we couldn't. And after the most strenuous 10 years of my life, you're saying he CAN'T?!?" Samela gulped. He held his breath for a second before replying, "C'mon, it's not that big of a deal. We can find happiness elsewhere of the societal world. Essence is a measure of --" "Happiness?? You've provided me no such thing! How dare you say I'm wrong, you agreed with me when we first met! Now you're saying I'm wrong?!" Her fists were clenched by her side with her arms tensed up. Dark essence was forming in seemingly hundreds of small wisps around her forearms. "I don't deserve your child. I don't deserve YOU!!" Samela gasped and knew exactly what she was going to do. He flared his wings once again, preparing to take off if she attacked. "F-Feera... What's this for?" He had a worried expression and frantic eyes. She couldn't be serious... it was only a matter of seconds before she'd gotten so aggressive! She only let out a sinister cackle. She held her arms up so her knuckles faced Samela and forearms were on either side of the front of her chest. She quickly charged up the essence into tubes of energy casing her forearms and slowly pointed them out towards Samela's face. She fired . His immediate response was to take off in flight, which was not effective enough, for in the same second the rays of energy struck the centre of his torso, the solar plexus. His whole body was shocked viciously as he dropped onto his side, head, limbs and wings falling limp and eyes struggling to stay open. His breath was halted. He knew this spelt his end. Feera smirked down at him. Her eyes were left tinted crimson after the display of wrath. She crouched down and closed her eyes, feeling a tear fall down her left cheek. The deed was done; it was time to leave and take herself to her demonic ancestry. Rumour had it there was a portal of some sort to the Dark Realm hidden deep in the forest bordering that beach. Samela's last sight was seeing Feera rushing off into the shrubbery and trees of the Forest of Illusion. At that moment, Aqueara had realised his mother and father were taking an awfully long 'quick word'. He sat up and turned around to see what they were doing. He couldn't see Feera but saw his father was lying on the border between the forest and the beach, and assumed he was sleeping. So he did the same; he lay on the sand where he was and swiftly fell asleep. As the sun rose the following morning, Aqueara felt the tide on his feet, startling him enough to wake up. He squealed, standing up on the damp sand and stretching his arms. He looked up into the sky. It was a clear day, with a few clouds in the distance to the north. He smiled and turned to where he remembered his father was laying the previous night, but to his surprise, he wasn't there. His reaction was to run to the spot he saw him last, not finding anything except sand receding into soil as the land went from the beach to the forest. He was completely confused. "Papa? Paaapaaa?" he called into the eerie forest. Where could he have possibly gone? He didn't normally play hide-seek until after breakfast. Today must have been different then! He grinned and started to explore the forest border, not going more than 2 feet beyond into it. He was trying to find his father, a hopeless attempt as he wouldn't find someone who has been eaten by creatures native to the forest. His simple mind didn't register that three days of searching for someone while travelling counter-clockwise along the border of a forest was far too long to find what he was looking for, however, his travels weren't in vain in respect to finding others. It was late afternoon and the air was fairly breezy. He came across a rather large group of beings around a mile away from the border, ones who looked just like him: winged humanoid felines. He looked like his father... so then they looked like his father, right? "Papa!" He ran into the small settlement of people with wings outstretched in anticipation of seeing Samela again. "Papa?" he called out once more, slowing down to a walk as he saw the inhabitants of the tiny village-like domain look at him with bewilderment. He came to a standstill. His Papa wasn't here, was he?... An adult came forward from one of the huts built as the people's homes. This one had a pale lime green coat with a face, tail, hands, feet and pair of wings just like his own. They didn't look much more unordinary than the rest of the tribe. As they drew closer, Aqueara realised who these people were; his father had talked about -- His father. He suddenly started to cry at the memory of Samela, much to the green-furred person's shock. "Papa, I want my Papa!" He sobbed loudly, urging more people to step outside of their huts and see what this commotion was about. The green figure stepped closer to the bawling child and knelt down about a foot in front of him. She took a deep breath, starting off with "Hey, child, are you alright?" but only got a louder sob in response. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Young man, is there something upsetting you? How did you get here?" This time, Aqueara replied. "I can't find my Papa Samelly!" he said between sobs. "Papa Smelly?" she said in return, more confused by how a child could call their parent that. "No, SA''melly! I cant find him!" She only had a troubled look on her face before being struck with a realisation. This boy was saying Papa Samela. A man who had left the tribe in search of a wife... was this boy's father! "Oh my goodness, your father is Samela?" Her eyes were wide with disbelief. "Dear, I used to know your Papa!" The crying stopped as abruptly as it started. "You... you did?" "Yes, yes I did! Ha!" She stood up with a chuckle and continued, "My name is Reuria, what's yours?" "I'm Aqueara!" "Well, Aqueara, come and follow me!" She held out a hand which he took, led him to her hut and entered beside him through the drapery over the entrance. Though the hut looked much the same as other huts in the tiny village-like settlement, the interior was arranged and decorated more like a primitive hybrid of a living space and an office. Reuria sat him down on the hammock slung across a corner of the single room and pulled up a stool beside it to seat herself. "So, Aqueara, tell me about yourself." An hour of conversation ensued. They talked about Samela, the tribe, the tribe's traditions, their essence abilities, Aqueara's life before now and reasons why he should keep residence in this tribe. "Alright then, Aqua," said Reuria, referring to him with the agreed nickname, "for now you can share my hut. Tomorrow we will formally start learning about the Elementalists. But for now..." She stood up, her knees rather stiff from the time spent sitting. She strode over to a chest of drawers on the desk she had, opening a drawer and rummaging through an assortment of papers before finding a small metal box. She clipped it open, revealing inside small gems coloured red, orange, yellow and green. "I would like to ask you something." Turning to walk back over to him, she showed him the gems contained in the box. "Which of these gems catches your eye the most? Choose truthfully." "Huh? Um..." He was confused by the gesture, but after a few moments of observing the four gems, he gave an answer. "The orange one." A smirk was almost visible on her lips. "Okay then! Now we've got that stuff covered, I think we should introduce you to the tribe! There aren't many of us, only around 20, but you'll fit right in!" He giggled and followed her out of the hut eagerly. Not until the following day had arrived that Aqua was now friends with all the tribespeople. Not until the day after that did he realise the ability to use neutral essence, just as his father could. It had escalated rather quickly for the first week, but he didn't lose his love for this place, even if new things came across him less often. It felt like a family to him. It felt like a real home. 6 years ahead, as Aqua was now one of the most skilled essence users in the tribe. Reuria had waited for this day to come. One chilly autumn night, while the moon was highest in the sky, Reuria entered Aqua's hut. He was awake, of course, since he'd been reorganising his hut to make room for another child who had been born a week before his arrival 6 years ago. He was going to help this child become the best person they could be, exactly as Reuria had done for him. "Ruri? What brings you here at this hour?" he asked, hearing the drapery over the entrance ruffle. "Ah, Aqua, I'm glad you're still awake." She looked at him, actually quite tired herself, and noticed how downbeat he was; the past day was stressful for him. Taking a protégé under your wing as their mentor wasn't a task taken lightly in Elementalist culture. "I need to speak to you. Can we step outside?" She walked through the drapery, followed by Aqua. The ground was wet since there had been showers all day. She turned to him and took a deep sigh. "Okay, I need to get straight to the point. I admire your extensive skill in the field of essence use, I mean I haven't ever been able to weave it with such ease and flawlessness as you. But we're called ''Elementalists for a reason. I think it's time you developed your talent into the field of the water element." His mind found this hard to follow. He was still rather taken aback he'd soon be a child's mentor, but now he was supposed to expand on his already vast ability in essence use? He gulped. "Uh... I'm not so sure. I have just been accepted as someone's mentor, I don't think I can manage learning something new while teaching what I already know to someone else." "That's no longer a problem. I am taking Vennoa as my own pupil. It's utterly necessary you start mastering an element." "What? Are you sure? I don't want to seem conceited, but I know Venny better than her own mother. It'll be much more of a challege for you to take responsibility as mentor." "I assure you, the whole situation is under control. You must learn practical Elemental Arts to classify as a true member of the tribe." Aqua grunted, then sighed, then grumbled again. "Okay, okay then... So you said my element is water, right? What makes you so certain? Can't I pick any element?" Ruri giggled. "Well, go ahead and try to levitate a chunk of the ground, then try again for the water on top of it." He did so. It wasn't hugely surprising that forming essence around water particles came more naturally to him than doing the same for particles in stone, since Reuria hadn't censored the spoilers. And for another year, he practised and mastered this tribe's Water Elemental Arts. He liked to admit he was wrong in thinking he should have kept on the path of mentoring Vennoa, since she had learnt more from Ruri than he could ever teach, plus he did like how his water abilities matched his nickname, Aqua. It was late autumn and curiosity was building up amongst the whole tribe about the strange gradual rise in dark essence levels in the Forest of Illusion taking place over 4 years. This correalated to a gradual decrease in levels of neutral essence and put the tribe's welfare in jeopardy. Investigation was an idea being tossed around between those of importance to the maintenance of the tribe, which included Reuria and Aqua. A further week of planning was carried out as half of the Elementalist tribe had set out to explore and investigate the forest. Aqua and 3 other members of importance were left behind with 7 other Elementalists. It was a terrible idea. Through the whole winter those who had set out to investigate hadn't even been heard of. Unfortunately, they had to be assumed dead, which led to a long period of grievance. The tribe had struggled to carry their weight through the winter climate, since the best of them had gone off in exploration. Patience was tested for the arrival of spring. As climate began improving, survival only became marginally easier, so it was decided now that it would be better if the tribe did not reside in the primitive hut settlement and search for a more modern home. From the occasional wandering around the forest's border, Aqua and a friend of his, Briolya, had caught sight of a village south of the forest once or twice in the distance from flying so high; it was inhabited by mortals and was in better condition than their settlement ((even though this village - Crossville - is a rather dilapidated village)). It was decided they would settle in that village. A week of travelling passed and the tribe estimated that it would be another 4 days before they'd arrive at their destination. The morning of that seventh day of travelling was begun as usual: Aqua woke first, followed by Briolya then the rest of the tribe's parents and children. As they all gathered their belongings and headed off for the day's hike, they were stopped at precisely midday by three flying figures. Briolya stepped forward while the rest of the tribe froze. He called out to the winged people, "Who is there? Why do you wish us to pause our progress?" The three landed in unison. They wore a formal, almost uniform attire. One of them stepped forward. She had pale grey fur and wore a bodysuit and corduroy trousers to match, along with a flowing black cape. And Briolya knew immediately who they were. "Oh my, it's you!" he called out, relieved this wasn't a threat to the journey. "Sage Levancia! What are you doing here?" Levancia held a hand to her mouth with a chuckle. "I could ask you the same thing, Brio! Why have you left the settlement?" A few minutes of explaining followed as the tribe and the other two Sages, Maraglema and Yueshzia, stood by. The three Sages were remorseful upon hearing the news. "That... Is most unfortunate." Lavencia replied. "I hate to bear more unexpected news, but I have come to see if you have someone we are looking for. Am I right to believe you have in this tribe a person called Aqueara?" At the mention of his name, Aqua's ears perked up as his gaze stayed on the Sages. They were looking for him... but why? Briolya raised his eyebrows. This made a little sense to him. They'd been waiting for years to find a Water Elementalist in the tribe to prove they have the gift of Sagehood. The reason they hadn't found them yet was because they hadn't learnt their water abilities yet. He turned to Aqua and Aqua looked back. "Why, here he is! So you're saying that..." He didn't finish the sentence, but Lavencia knew the answer was "Yes. Yes he is." She walked forward to Aqua, a few yards behind Briolya, while being followed by Maraglema and Yueshzia. "Aqueara, you are the reborn soul of the Sage of Water." "... WHAT?" was all he could say in response. He'd only just last summer learnt all he could about the water element. "Sage Lavencia, I think you misunderstand... I'm not very experienced with water yet, I mastered it only 5 months ago!" She sighed and set her hand on his left shoulder. She took a minute to explain Sagehood to him, and a few more to explain why she was certain he was the Sage of Water. She finished by smiling at him and letting go of his shoulder. He was still as puzzled as he was before the explanation. "You really think I'm the Sage?" "Of course you are, Aqueara." Lavencia said. Aqua looked behind him at the tribe. The children looked frightened and almost apathetic about the situation but their parents were all smiling in approval of the declaration. He then looked at a dejected Briolya. "Aqua... I would hate to see you go, but you must go and live with the Sages. You are undoubtedly the Sage of Water and you need to live as one." He smiled slightly, feeling a lump in his throat. "Goodbye and good luck, Aqueara." Aqua turned back to the Sages. Their expressions were formal once again. After bidding farewell to the tribe as they resumed on their pursuit of the village, Aqua took flight alongside the Sages to find the northern Frezelia Mountains. The rest is history... mostly. Explanation of abilities One essence-based ability not listed in the page 'Essence' is manipulation of the 4 elements. To be able to use these elemental abilities, one must be able to use neutral essence. This is employed by fixing small wisps of essence around individual particles inside the substance of the element and cause the 'chunk' of substance to be moved, almost telekinetically. It's a tricky technique to get the hang of, since it requires a high level of intricacy with using essence. However this can only be employed with neutral essence since other essences haven't the stability required to keep essence fixed onto each particle. The only elemental users seen anywhere are the Elementalists. Another key thing to know is that once one decides the element they use, that cannot change; one person may only be able to use one element. When Sages transform into their Sage forms, neutral essence abilities are heightened, the same way a demonic form heightens dark essence abilities. The Sage of Air becomes able to create cyclones of high strength with any desired size; the Sage of Water can use water as ice; the Sage of Earth can force earth to melt and become magma; the Sage of Fire can condense flames into beams. These moves in particular require having essence attached to particles while also being sparked with energy at the same time, something that can't be done ordinarily. However with the amplified ability to weave essence, it's relatively simple to move particles of substance around to cause friction between wisps of essence to spark energy. The following is a description of how essence is fixed onto particles of an elemental substance: Air - This is easy to understand, since particles of air are relatively easy to visualise. Although, fixing essence onto the mobile particles is much more difficult. The task of sparking energy is far simpler though, since the unattached particles are easy to force collisions between. Water - Water, being more dense than air, proves more difficult to visualise individual particles of, however forming essence onto them is much easier since they don't move around as much. Energising them is a little harder though, since motion is resisted inside a liquid. There's a very old rumour that ice formed through use of essence behaves strangely with dark essence, and this remains un-debunked. Earth - The easiest part about manipulating earth is that essence can be formed around immobile particles much quicker, yet to move a mass of earth requires a lot of mental strength, in order to force the wisps of essence to move particles in connected unison. Visualising individual particles while they're all connected, as well as forcing each particle to cause friction between essence wisps is terribly difficult. Fire - Fire is anomalous in a way; to cause it to move, the actual 'substance' of fire (the gases forming the flame) doesn't allow essence wisps to attach to each particle, since doing so causes the gases to cool down and lose what makes the flame a flame. Instead essence wisps are formed around particles of the substance fuelling the combustion and thus the flame, usually easy to visualise. This is tricky since essence can oxidise when exposed to oxisiding material, but if handled correctly, moving flames around isn't so difficult, and neither is sparking energy into essence since heat from the flame already excites the essence. Category:Lore